I want to explain my significant concern with respect to the GNLP on the Yare River Valley, particularly in the Cringleford and Colney areas (i.e. areas GNLP0244, 0461, 140a).

1.This is an area of local natural importance. Development here would be devastating to the local wildlife including bird and insect. Where would this wildlife be rehomed too? There is no alternative. How would the environmental impact be managed including greater flooding risk locally or further downstream?
2.This is an area of local natural beauty. It is in daily use by residents for activities such as walking, dog exercise, running, biking, exploring and learning about nature and other such activities not suited to developed and urban areas. There is no alternative areas for these activities, and such land set aside within new development areas is more suited to children's playgrounds and totally not suited to these aforementioned activities which require space in a natural setting rather than a developed area). The plan suggests that more housing is needed because people move to this area for its high environmental qualities and lifestyle choices. Surely the attractiveness of the area would be destroyed by building homes in the areas that create the attractiveness in the first place.
3.The plan states that more people are moving to the area. This should not be a reason to build new homes, this is a reason for an increase in house prices in one area and a reduction in another. If we increase the supply of homes in the area in demand, we will simply create barren and dysfunctional communities in other parts of the country, where houses are almost worthless and unemployment high.
4.The plan takes no account of the impact on Brexit on local industries, for example professional services and IT quoted as being a future driver of greater employment in the area could be significantly reduced due to lower demand for provision of services from the UK to Europe (due to the trade friction, it will be more efficient for the EU to obtain these services from member states). Additionally, for the first time net immigration is an outflow from the UK, rather than an inflow. If this is sustained a historical driver of housing demand will disappear, and if the trend grows we will see housing demand fall as people leave the UK. This means the quantum or shape of housing demand could be lower or different to assumed in the plan.
5.The plan does not fully consider the implications to the city centre of digital trends by 2030s. Digital, analytics and robotics and likely to reduce almost all demand for office space and office workers in this timeframe which could significantly reduce the amount of housing demand.
6.The almost total of loss of office requirements and the trend away from high street shopping killing demand for city centre retail over the next 10-20 years will create huge vacant offices and retail spaces (a trend that has already begun) which is a huge opportunity to create new housing in the already developed area. This can be done by converting the offices into homes (and office space is more easily converted into affordable housing solutions) or replacing the commercial buildings with much taller residential structures. Building upwards (eg 10-20 floors) is a more acceptable impact on the skyline in city centres (as done in other major cities) than decimating the local countryside. If all city office space was converted to minimum 10 story residential buildings, the housing demand would be fully met as well as the demand for affordable housing.
7.The trend emerging from Millennials is significantly different to previous generations. For example, attitudes to owning assets such as property and land are very different, with a much lower appetite to work and save to purchase such expensive assets, and instead embracing digital connectivity, small gadgets and virtual reality (we are already seeing a growing trend to rent property and alternatives from car ownership). This means that we should be looking to convert existing accommodation to better suit future generations who will demand significantly less square footage, rather than building more of what we already have - todays single family 4 bedroom detached house could be tomorrow's home for two families in semi detached accommodation or three families in apartments. This may not appeal to new home building companies who make their money from converting green sites and building large housing estates, but it's a strategy much more in keeping with trends in society.
8.We will see a reversal of people physically moving to communities, as in the future many workers will work from home wherever that may be using digital tools, connectivity to provide services, rather than travel to the office of an insurance company or a manufacturing site (Aviva is already doing this with a significant proportion of staff now permanently working from home providing customer services that used to be provided in call centres).
9.Points 3-8 also apply to the wider plan as well as the areas stated in the first paragraph.